Artyom's Mom Tries to Avoid Paying Child Support
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/24/45897.htm
Tuesday, April 24, 2012Last Update: 6:22 AM PT
Woman Wants Adoption Case Ended for Good
By TISH KRAFT
REDDING, Calif. (CN) - A woman who touched off an international furor by returning her 7-year-old son to Russia 6 months after adopting him asked a Superior Court judge to enforce a Russian Federation Supreme Court case annulling the adoption.
Torry Ann Hansen sued L.L. Mityayev and A.A. Nikolayeva, as legal representatives of Russian Federation State Educational Institute Orphanage No. 19 Foster Center, in Shasta County Court.
Enforcement of the judgment would allow Hansen to avoid paying child support, according to the complaint.
ABC News reported in April 2011 that Hansen sent the boy "on a plane to Moscow's Domodedovo airport with a note in his pocket saying she was returning him, that the boy had severe psychological problems and that the orphanage had lied about his condition."
Her action "horrified officials and adoption experts in both countries," ABC reported in its April 9, 2011 story: "Tennessee Mother Ships Adopted Son Back to Moscow Alone," which is still posted on the Internet.
"This child is mentally unstable," Hansen wrote to the Russian Ministry of Education, according to ABC News. "He is violent and has severe psychopathic issues/ behaviors. I was lied to and misled by the Russian Orphanage workers and director regarding his mental stability and other issues."
The City Council of Tverskoy, a municipality in Moscow, sued Hansen on the boy's behalf, requesting revocation of the adoption "due to the fault of the adoptive parent," Hansen says in her complaint. Tverskoy requested child support.
Hansen says she countersued the boy and his representatives, two city councils, and the orphanage "to annul the adoption through no fault of the adoptive parent," then amended the cause of action to request annulment "due to the fault of the adoptive mother or not," according to her complaint. The Moscow City Court dismissed her complaint, Hansen says.
But Russian Federation Supreme Court reversed, finding "that the annulment was necessary to protect the minor child's rights and legally protected interests, as well as the public interests. It annulled the adoption based on plaintiff's culpable conduct," according to Hansen's complaint.
But Mitayayev, the orphanage's representative, continues to pursue an order for child support against Hansen in Shelbyville, Tenn., Circuit Court, Hansen says.
"(I)n his purported capacity as the minor child's legal custodian[,] he has apparently authorized the adoption agency plaintiff used and/or the National Council for Adoption to litigate the matter in Tennessee on his behalf," Hansen says.
She asks the Superior Court to recognize and enforce the Russian Supreme Court judgment.
She is represented by Elizabeth Niemi of Sacramento.
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